KERPOW!

That’s the first line of my new novel What Will Become Of Us Is Love, to be published Feb1

Just the one word. Kerpow!

It denotes the sudden thump of desire, delight, fibrillation and fear, for which the shorthand is ‘love at first sight’.

If you’re at a loose end in London on Feb 20 you could do worse than come and hear me talk about it at How To Academy. Details below…

Forgive the shameless self-promotion. This is what you have to do to sell a book these days. Some writers pawn their souls to influencers. I am not that far gone. I still cart my wares around like a hawker, but I don’t as yet have to ring a bell.

But when was it any different?

‘Alas, ‘tis true I have gone here and there,’ Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 110, ‘and made myself a motley to the view.’ Walking up and down Cheapside in a clown’s outfit, as I imagine, wearing a board announcing a new production of Twelfth Night.

‘Kerpow!’ I say to you all, anyway, by way of New Year greeting. May your hearts thump at least once over these coming months with unexpected delight.

And now back to self-promotion. Here is How To Academy’s announcement of the coming event…

how to ACADEMY

One of Britain’s greatest novelists, the Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson joins us with a provocative examination of desire, infidelity, and what is left of us when we strip away every layer.

Love can change your life. But can it survive it?

Often described as ‘the English Philip Roth’ – though he prefers the description ‘the Jewish Jane Austen’ – Howard Jacobson’s gifts as a novelist include not only the penetrating psychological insight one would expect of a household literary name, but a talent of comedy almost entirely absent among the high table of British culture. Like all masters of the comic, his intentions are serious and profound; and in his new novel What Will Survive of Us he takes us to the edge of desire, love, and betrayal across a lifetime.

Lily Redfern falls in love with Sam Quaid the minute she sets eyes on him. It takes Sam a day or two longer. Curious, because Lily – independent, headstrong, rational – has never quite believed in love; while Sam – confident, passionate, romantic – thought he understood it inside out.

Lily is an award-winning television documentary maker. Sam is an award-winning playwright. Both are in relationships that have quietly expired, but their encounter makes them come alive again. As they begin to work together on the page and on screen, an affair takes hold that they are powerless to resist. Arriving in mid-life, their relationship opens unexpected new worlds and, for Lily, offers her a surprising form of liberation. But what will happen to them when familiarity, illness and age begin to take their toll? What will survive?

On Love and Desire: Howard Jacobson live in conversation with Hannah MacInnes

Presenter, Podcaster and Host of How To Academy’s live programmes.

Hannah MacInnes is a broadcaster and journalist. Alongside hosting How To Academy’s live programmes and podcast, she presents a cultural show on Times Radio and interviews on-stage at a number of other major literary events. She is the host of The Klosters Forum Podcast series and has written for the Radio Times, the Evening Standard and TLS. Before going freelance she worked for 8 years at BBC Newsnight, as Planning Editor and as a Producer / Filmmaker.

When 

Tue, 20 February 2024
6:00pm – 7:15pm GMT

Where

The Conduit
6 Langley Street
WC2H 9JA

Buy Live TicketBuy LivestreamJoin 

Books

Books are supplied by Stanfords and can be picked up at the event.

Livestream book orders are for UK only and will be dispatched by Primrose Hill Books shortly after the event.

Price

Live Event Tickets are £30 or 50% off for subscribers to How To Plus.

Replay

A link to replay the event will be made available 48 hours after the event is over to enjoy without a time limit.

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In the meantime you can keep the wolf from my door, the bailiffs from my library, and the icy fingers of indigence from my heart, by becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you, and Kerpow!